CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

 Sound secondary education is an indispensable tool to a meaningful development of youths who are the respective leaders of tomorrow. As a matter of fact, the learning and nurturing that occur during these years have a profound impact on each student’s performance, as the quality of students’ education at the secondary school level has much to do with the quality of their adult life. Besides, secondary schools are also elaborated, complex mini-societies whose internal organizational structures have a direct impact on the lives of the individuals, and groups of individuals who inhabit them (Lee, Bryk & Smith, 2003).

In addition to their formal organizational structures, secondary schools are equally inherent cultural entities replete with amazing arrays of artifacts, rituals, and rites of passage all of which impact directly on the manner in which their inhabitants negotiate the terms of their existence within those institutions (Hemmings, 2000; Hoffman, 2003).

In , cameroon, public discussions frequently focus on educational standards.  All stakeholders are concerned about why the system is turning out graduates with poor results. To them, it is questionable whether or not teachers are factors that determine the effectiveness of schools and a qualified teacher in education should be competent to teach effectively. The  Republic of , cameroon (2004) in the National Policy of Education states that no education system can rise above the quality of teachers in the system. Ogunsaju (2004) stated that the academic standard in all , cameroon educational institutions has fallen considerably below societal expectations. Blumende (2001) stated that the decline in the quality of education cannot be ignored by anyone who is aware of the significant role of education as an instrument of societal transformation and development. There is a need to focus on teachers’ quality, adequacy and competency in respect to their pedagogical practices and strategies and mastery of the curriculum and subject content (Stuart, 2004, Rodgers, 2001).

Ijaiya (1998) concurred and opined that improving the quality of the teaching force in schools is seen as the key to raising students’ achievement. Thus, raising educational standards should be the government’s number one priority. Lassa (2000) claimed that education cannot be provided by just anybody, it requires a qualified and competent teacher who plans and delivers the lessons or instruction in such a way that objectives can be achieved. An uncertified teacher cannot prepare students for GCE because it is unlikely that they could pass.  Owolabi (2007) stated that government should find all possible means to retain veteran and experienced teachers who are still willing to serve so that they can contribute their wealth of experience to improving the system. Therefore, the kind of teachers trained and posted to schools may well determine what the next generation will be like and the level of students’ academic performance.

  Adeniyi (2001) argued that the falling standards in , cameroon educational system can also be traced to cultural, religious, social, technological and above all economic reasons. Standard in this context is the degree of excellence required for a particular purpose; it is an accepted or approved example against which others are judged or measured. However, this study takes another dimension with the main focus on the role of teachers and their influence on the quality of teaching and learning.

In addition, it has been alleged that what is wrong with secondary education cannot be fixed with teachers alone, yet there is no doubt that man’s contemporary existence is dominated by teaching. There is also a universal recognition of the need to use professionally qualified teachers in instructional processes as an era of globalization where school effectiveness and quality improvement is the order of the day. Up until now, cameroon is on the wrong side of the international effort of secondary school reform movement. Because, , cameroon has failed to actively engage in such reform movements. The reason for secondary school reform for example, is a significant aspect in the maintenance of balance between greater institutional self-sufficiency and public accountability. International reforms of schools aimed at creating school effectiveness and quality improvement is an effort in the 21st century to improve quality in education. However, cameroon cannot afford to be on the erroneous surface (Adeniyi, 2001). Moreover, secondary schools in , cameroon are not given adequate funds to provide furniture, relevant textbooks, sponsor teachers for professional course and adequate classroom let alone being given adequate fund to purchase modern equipment to aid instruction that will go a long way to fast track and improve the quality of teachers in schools (Aduwa-Ogiegbaen&Iyamu 2005; Adeniyi 2001).

The development of a national core curriculum for science to both the primary and the secondary school level has helped to specify the area of competency required by students in order to develop the correct attitude to science. Gongden and lohdip (2011) stated the curriculum however well planned, developed and interpreted will come for short of our hopes unless it is applied by teachers who are themselves the product of its philosophy.

For many years educators and researchers have debated and pointed out so many factors which influence student’s academic performance. Kennedy (2010) stated school factors ( e.g work load, class size, laboratories and distance from schools), teachers qualification, teachers teaching experiences, teachers gender and teachers attitudes as a factors which influence academic performance of students in chemistry. Jimoh (2008) revealed that students and examiners perceived topic as difficult, and teachers perceived 8 topics as difficult in applied electricity and showed that inadequacy of teaching materials, texts books, poor student-teacher mathematics ability were variables responsible for perceived difficulties indicate. Jimmy (2014) concluded that teacher’s competency in teaching and learning is an important factor in determing the success to a teaching session. Their ability and wisdom in handing learning activities will have a direct impact on student’s active involvement in learning activities.

Teachers have been know to have important influence on students academic performance and they also play a crucial role in educational attainment because the teachers is ultimately responsible for translating educational policies and principle into actions based on practice during interaction with the students (Afe,2001). Both teaching and learning depend on teachers: no wonder an effective teachers has been conceptualized as one who produces desired issues in the course of his duty as a teacher (Uchefuna, 2001).Considering governments huge investment in public education, its output in terms of quality of students has been observed to be unequal with government expenditure consequent upon the observed deterioration in the academic achievement, attitude and value of secondary school students in public secondary schools, one wonder if the high failure rates and the failure of the students especial in external examinations is not a reflection of the instructional quality in the schools. Therefore, the negative attitude of teachers in classroom interaction with the students could be responsible for he observed poor performance of students and the widely acclaimed fallen standard of education in , cameroon.

Maria and Marie (2012) claimed that female students with an unobserved propensity for achievement are more likely to be matched with female teachers (and vice versa for male students), not at all by the positive impact of matching a students to same gender teacher. According to Thomas (2006), students are more engaged, behave more appropriately and perform at higher level when taught by one who are of the same gender. The quality of education and performance of students depends on the teachers as reflected in the discharge of their duties. Over times students academic performance in both internal and external examination in chemistry had been used in determine the variable of teachers and teaching (Ajao, 2001). This was buttressed by Ogunsaju (2004) that the academic standard of students in all , cameroon educational institutions has fallen considerably below societal expectations.